Jang and Paik BMC Neuroscience
Local interaction in retinal ganglion cell mosaics can generate a consistent spatial periodicity in cortical functional maps
Jaeson Jang 0
Se-Bum Paik 0
0 Department of Bio and Brain Engineering , KAIST, Daejeon, 305-701 , Republic of Korea
-
From 24th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting: CNS*2015
Prague, Czech Republic. 18-23 July 2015
Orientation map is one of the most studied functional
maps in visual cortex, but the developmental
mechanism of its consistent spatial periodicity is still elusive.
Recently, a theoretical model suggested that a moiré
interference pattern between ON and OFF retinal
ganglion cell (RGC) mosaics can develop a quasi-periodic
orientation map, but it is remained unclear how this can
explain the constant periodicity of the maps [
1
]. Here
we suggest a developmental model that a simple local
interaction in RGCs can generate a consistent spatial
periodicity of orientation preference, by inducing (i) a
hexagonal lattice structure in ON/OFF RGC mosaics
and (ii) a constant alignment angle between them.
First, we introduced a developmental model of a
monotypic RGC mosaic to show that a local repulsive
interaction can generate a hexagonal structure (Figure 1A).
Previously, in the model study of the pairwise interaction
point process, it was suggested that a local interaction
alone cannot develop a long-range order in the mosaic
structure [
2
]. We assumed a different type of local
repulsive interaction that the cell positions can be gradually
shifted by a repulsion from the neighbor cells and
confirmed that this model can develop a long-range ordered
structure that is well fitted to a hexagonal lattice.
Next, we assumed that there also exists a heterotypic
repulsive interaction between ON and OFF RGC mosaics
and examined how this can affect the alignment between
the two mosaics (Figure 1B). When the inter-layer distance
between ON/OFF mosaics was varied within a proper
interval, the hexagonal structure was preserved in each
mosaic, but the alignment angle (θ) between the two
mosaics was restricted within a certain range of angles,
and this induced a constant spatial periodicity in the ON/
OFF interference pattern (Figure 1C). As observed in the
moiré interference, we confirmed a consistent hexagonal
periodicity in the cortical orientation map that are
simulated by statistical wiring model from the developed RGC
mosaics (Figure 1D,E) [
3
].
Conclusions
Our result suggests that a local repulsive interaction in
RGC mosaics can generate a hexagonal structure in ON/
OFF RGC mosaics and a restricted alignment between
them. The interference between mosaics induces a
consistent spatial periodicity in cortical orientation map as
predicted by the moiré interference pattern.
1. Paik SB , Ringach DL : Retinal origin of orientation maps in visual cortex . Nat Neurosci 2011 , 14 : 919 - 925 .
2. Hore VR a, Troy JB , Eglen SJ : Parasol cell mosaics are unlikely to drive the formation of structured orientation maps in primary visual cortex . Vis Neurosci 2012 , 29 ( 6 ): 283 - 299 .
3. Ringach DL : Haphazard wiring of simple receptive fields and orientation columns in visual cortex . J Neurophysiol 2004 , 92 ( 1 ): 468 - 476 .